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"It is a challenge to seize children's attention and not to let it go. Some teachers experience great difficulties in keeping students engaged and involved in the educational process due to objective reasons. Luckily, there exist some tricks to help resourceful teachers, one of them being visual aids. Looking at bright and colorful images, students are more likely to digest the material without boredom and remember it afterwards. But why are visual aids so effective and how to create them? First of all, visual aids are helpful, because they show the data visually. Some facts, connections and outcomes are much easier to understand when they are represented as a picture. For example, some statistics, shown as a diagram will be much more winning than its detailed descriptions in words. Then, as visual images have the sense of modernity, they easily grab children's attention for some time. Thus, they are useful for highlighting some essential points and setting true accents. And finally, visual aids and pictures boost children's creativity. By looking at something beautiful and challenging, by perceiving the right way of data organization, students can get inspired and come up with new and outstanding ideas. "

"The Art of Tinkering looks at over 150 different artists and makers and how they weave science and technology into their work.  It's beautifully designed and inspiring.   It clearly demonstrates the important part that art, whimsy and creativity play in making.  Each chapter focuses on a different technique, from aerial photography to cardboard automata to wearable circuits to toy take apart.  The chapters each feature an artist or professional who uses that technique in their work, with an intimate look into their design processes, studios and tools.  The chapters then follow up with step-by-step instructions for a DIY activity, which are often excellent for maker stations.  I'm eager to try out the DIY wind tunnel and the marble run with my students."

"Humans are just so fascinating, which is why history just might be the most engrossing topic to learn about. Whether you're a student or just someone who wants to learn, here are five websites that look at different parts of history in unique ways. I outlined some history education resources earlier this year, and you all seemed to like it, so I'm back at it again today. These sites are all different, but they all offer ways to look at the past and learn something."

"3D printers and 3D design software can be powerful tools that allow students to develop and test designs for all kinds of objects from toys to car parts. Selecting and purchasing a 3D printer for your classroom can be a daunting task. Sylvia Martinez and Gary Stager offer some good advice about 3D printers in their book Invent to Learn. For a more exhaustive look at 3D printers on the market, take a look at the 2016 3D Printer Guide from 3D Hubs."

"The history classroom was a mess. There were wires, nails, brads, and wooden pieces on every desk, and students around me struggled with a difficult task. I knew that, in the middle of the mess, I had reached a good balance between student independence and teacher instruction, between hands-on experience and historical material, when one of my students looked up and said, "Mrs. Pang, this is fun! It's really hard, but it's fun." She looked back down at the length of wire in her hands and kept winding it onto a large nail. She was following instructions to create the electromagnet on a telegraph machine. This student and her partner got theirs to work on the second try. Through this small making project, they were exploring the history of innovation and communication. At the same time, they were learning about making electrical connections, how to use tools, and how to troubleshoot their work when it failed. And they said it was fun. In my mind, they were referring to Seymour Papert's kind of fun: hard fun."

"I bet learning was never as much fun or engaging when you were growing up as it is now at the height of the Internet era. If you're a parent or a teacher looking for resources to help your kids take their academic and non-academic education a notch higher, you don't have to look too far. That's because you're now in the Digital Age, and the web is overflowing with awesome learning material for kids (and for adults too!). Here are ten educational websites for kids that'll serve you well. Keep them bookmarked!"

"16Hertz, an educational electronics company based in New York City announces the release of their illustrated, graphic-novel style guide, "The Illustrated Arduino". The guide is over 75 pages long, and contains hundreds of hand-drawn illustrations that take the readers through getting up-and-running with electronics prototyping and Arduino programming.   Written by career educators and makers, Aditya Kumarakrishnan and Adiel Fernandez, "The Illustrated Arduino" is a comprehensive guide created to be easily accessible to readers of all experience levels looking for a way to jump into the world of microcontrollers. When the duo dove into the Arduino community, they had a difficult time finding a comprehensive, clear guidebook for beginners. Having taught programming, physical computing and design to students of all ages from middle schools to universities, they sought out to create a guide that is easy-to-follow, great to look at all while still being rigorous. "We set out to create the most beautiful, user-friendly, pedagogically sound and rigorous guide book for the Arduino in the world", says Aditya. They've released the guide under a Creative Commons license, encouraging the larger community to share and use its content freel"

"If you're looking for effective and popular school tools to test out this fall, look no further. Every week, EdSurge delivers its educator-specific INSTRUCT newsletter (sign-up here) with a section on "S'Cool Tools," calling attention to 3-5 edtech tools we've found, tested, and given our surging seal of approval. And out of 75+ S'Cool Tools showcased in INSTRUCT during Q3 (July, August, September), ten products have risen to the top based on the number of clicks they've received from our INSTRUCT readers. Check them out below!"

"3D-printing technology still appears too unreliable, too complicated, and too slow for mainstream adoption. The companies making investments in it are the ones with significant amounts of capital to purchase $100,000-plus equipment and train the personnel needed to operate 3D printers. But despite these obstacles, 2016 looks promising for the 3D-printing industry. Here are five things to look forward to in the new year."

"The Arduino is a cheap electronics board that allows you to make your own electronics without a ton of coding experience. We love the Arduino, but like any electronics project, coming up with ideas for what to build is tough. Whether you're just looking for inspiration or just need a place to start, let's take a look at ten of the coolest Arduino projects."

"The choices we make during the first hour or so of our morning often determine what the rest of the day will look like. Will your morning routine grant you a day full of productivity and peace of mind? Or will you be looking at an eight-hour stretch of haphazard work? Over the past five years I've interviewed more than 300 successful people about their morning routines. Through talking with business leaders and university presidents to Olympians, fashion models and artists, I've learned that while there isn't one "best" morning routine that works for everyone, there are best practices that some of the most successful people I spoke with follow every day. Here are some of the most common morning routines I've found among successful people."

Blueback is a beautiful metaphor for life and particularly of the life we live in schools. When looked at close up, with an eye on the details, the experience of school is one of passing and recurring cycles. When looked at from a distance, with an eye on the whole, there are elements of constancy, the throughlines which bring meaning to our experience and which have as their consequence the residuals of education. 

"One of the hardest parts of building a career in 2019 is making sure you stay ahead of the curve. It can be hard to anticipate what skills the economy of tomorrow will require and which jobs will disappear thanks to technological developments. In order to make sure that workers stay in high demand among employers today and in the future, they need to constantly be learning new skills. LinkedIn analyzed hundreds of thousands of job postings in order to determine which skills companies need most in 2019. They found that employers are looking for workers with both soft skills and hard technical skills, and matched these skills with LinkedIn Learning courses that are free for the month of January. The most in-demand soft skill in 2019? Creativity. For those looking to cultivate this skill, LinkedIn recommends the following courses: Creativity Bootcamp, The Five-Step Creative Process, and Creativity: Generate Ideas in Greater Quantity and Quality."

"QUINCY, Wash. - A few years ago, a young female engineer named Isis Anchalee was featured on one of her company's recruiting posters only to be subjected to a barrage of digital feedback questioning whether she was really an engineer. People posting on Facebook and Twitter said Anchalee was too attractive to be an actual software engineer and must be a model. Anchalee responded like the techie she is. She wrote a blog post about her experience and added a photo of herself with the hashtag #ILookLikeAnEngineer. Twitter exploded with selfies of female engineers of all backgrounds and male engineers of color declaring they looked like engineers, too. If she had known about the hashtag campaign and taken a look, Alessandra Gudino Aguilar, age 8, might have seen a grown-up version of herself. Alessandra, a student at Pioneer Elementary School in rural Quincy, Washington, spent part of the fall term in an enrichment class focused on teaching elementary-age students the principles of engineering design through a curriculum designed by educators and scientists at Boston's Museum of Science."

"The research group that I'm a part of, Re-Making STEM, of is looking at ways that computational thinking (CT) practices intersect with creative, collaborative human activities.  This has led to some really interesting explorations in computing, cognition, and culture. Our practical goals include: discovering ways that teachers and their students can engage with and learn CT, and discovering design principles for learning and applying CT in interesting ways.  In this post, we'll look at some of those explorations and hopefully leave you with some things to think about."

"Over the years, Google has left its humble origins behind to become one of the largest companies in the world, offering a wide range of devices and services. To keep those services free, Google records data about you and uses it to display targeted advertising-their main source of revenue. As the debate around online privacy ramps up, many people are looking for an alternative. Fortunately, DuckDuckGo might be the privacy-focused search engine you've been looking for."

"Obviously a lot can change in 15 years. We all know this, but these images put that reality into perspective for me. It makes me wonder about things. It make me ask myself, "If that's what was on the movie of the summer, what was in our classrooms? How much has changed with technology? What about in our classrooms?" Why innovate? Here's my worry: Schools that don't innovate are going to look like this, and it likely won't take 15 years to happen. In all likelihood, it's probably happening more places than we'd like to admit right now. If we don't change, we're going to end up looking like that picture appears to us now-irrelevant, a relic of the past. For some (maybe even many) what we were doing now will be nearly unrecognizable in the not so distant future. In hindsight, some of what we understood as best practice not too long ago seems that way. We can't control the fact that our schools will continue to grow, but if we don't start getting some movement now and gaining momentum today, we're going to end up so big and so settled in that our own inertia will keep us from moving forward. With each day that passes without innovation, we only make it harder to make change happen in the future."

This week I am in Florence having spent two days at "The Future of Education" conference. Visiting this city, which has played such a significant role in western history, is inspiring. It encourages one to not only look back at what was, but also to look ahead at what might be, especially when the t

"Please, No More Professional Development! By Peter DeWitt on April 17, 2015 8:10 AM Today's guest blog is written by Kristine Fox (Ed.D), Senior Field Specialist/Research Associate at Quaglia Institute for Student Aspirations (QISA). She is a former teacher and administrator who has passion for teacher learning and student voice. Kris works directly with teachers and leaders across the country to help all learners reach their fullest potential. Peter DeWitt recently outlined why "faculty meetings are a waste of time." Furthering on his idea, most professional development opportunities don't offer optimal learning experiences and the rare teacher is sitting in her classroom thinking "I can't wait until my district's next PD day." When I inform a fellow educator that I am a PD provider, I can read her thoughts - boring, painful, waste of time, useless, irrelevant - one would think my job is equal to going to the dentist (sorry to my dentist friends). According to the Quaglia Institute and Teacher Voice and Aspirations International Center's National Teacher Voice Report only 54% percent of teachers agree "Meaningful staff development exists in my school." I can't imagine any other profession being satisfied with that number when it comes to employee learning and growth. What sense does it make for the science teacher to spend a day learning about upcoming English assessments? Or, for the veteran teacher to learn for the hundredth time how to use conceptual conflict as a hook. Why does education insist everyone attend the same type of training regardless of specialization, experience, or need? As a nod to the upcoming political campaigns and the inevitable introduction of plans with lots of points, here is my 5 Point Plan for revamping professional development. 5 Point Plan Point I - Change the Term: Semantics Matter We cannot reclaim the term Professional Development for teachers. It has a long, baggage-laden history of conformity that does not

It seems that thanks to COVID19, educators, parents and students are in a rush. It seems the rush started moments after the decision was made to promote social distancing by offering remote learning. From quality learning in classrooms focused on deep learning we shifted into top gear. Packets of work were prepared, online tools rapidly expanded, new options for content delivery were examined and quickly deployed. We wanted to make sure that our students would be kept busy. Parents wanted their children to be busy. - Maybe slow looking is the solution?